Agenda item

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform and the Corporate Director for Education and Young People’s Services, giving a summary of the Kent Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Assessments, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs), and GCSE and post 16 results for 2016, which Members are asked to note.

1.         Mr Gough, Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform introduced the report which provided a summary of the Kent Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Assessments, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) and GCSE and post 16 results for 2016, and included comparison to national data where available.  It also reported on the achievements of vulnerable groups and achievement gaps in each Key Stage.  The data was not final validated data so outcomes were provisional until January 2017, and some national comparative data was still unavailable for some indicators.

2.         Mr Leeson then added that the trend continued to be upwards in terms of outcomes.  He expected to have more information around progress measures in Primary. The progress data in Primary, should be available in December/January. He also highlighted that the National data on achievement gaps was not yet available.

3.         Mr Leeson then responded to questions from Members and made points including the following:

(a)  Progress and outcomes were the top priority for schools. He welcomed new progress measures, as he felt success should be measured by the progress of all children from their starting points.  Schools were increasingly being judged on acceleration of progress to match other children. The OFSTED framework had always focussed on progress rates for children and young people, and gaps.  There had been a shift in expectations, and more understanding in schools that it was the job of the school to look for expected and better than expected for individual children.

(b)  Kent had a collaborative approach with schools, and this has helped the quality of leadership in schools to improve. 

(c)  There were a range of new qualifications available for pre and post 16, which were more likely to encourage young people onto the next step of their education.  There was a transitional period towards a more high quality vocational skills system and the Government was driving this forward. More schools were taking up the new qualifications overall in Kent, but there was still a predominantly academic A level Programme in school sixth forms, which needed to be more blended.  There were still barriers to young people wanting to access the new qualifications, such as a requirement for level 2 English and Maths. There were 21 High schools in Kent now offering the International Baccalaureate Careers Related programme qualification.  A conference was being held the following day focussing on these areas, attended by 60 schools in Kent to look at the different 14-19 pathways available.

(d)  70% of High schools in Kent were academies, so comparisons between KCC maintained schools and academy schools was difficult. Capacity to deliver good progress measures had been variable this year across all types of school.  It was a mixed picture, and there was no clear pattern.

4.         RESOLVED that the following be noted:

(i)            The Improvements in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

(ii)          The positive outcomes at Key Stages 1, 2, 4 and A Level and technical qualifications at Post 16.

(iii)         The areas that still required improvement and the priorities for actions to ensure that further improvement was achieved in 2017.